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YES!!! Cal Football 2014 was WILDLY ENTERTAINING! Let’s put a few things in perspective… Last year our Cal Bears were 1-11. We were blown out by historic margins in all but 2 games. But through it all, game after game, blowout after blowout, I stayed through to the end.

This year that all changed. Cal quintupled its win total over last year. The games were competitive. The games were FUN. So you’ll forgive me for not moping over the loss on Saturday and instead being excited about what happened this year!!

You know, I realize I can be the most annoying positive person on the planet. I just hate wallowing in misery and defeat (and I’ve experience plenty). It’s just how I get through life, seems to work for me but certainly not you have to do it. So leaving Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon, like everyone I was disappointed in the loss. But I certainly wasn’t disappointed in the season. And I wasn’t upset and I wasn’t disappointed for me. I was disappointed for the players and the coaches. I’ve seen how much they have embraced the Cal community. So I just want to share my thoughts on why I loved this season so much and why I am so excited for next year.

I’ve seen how incredibly accessible these coaches are (and their families) to the fans. I would find it hard to believe there is another coaching staff in American who is as interactive with the fans and community as this staff is. Heck even their wives – if you go to the game and you’re sitting by her, be prepared for Kate Dykes to come over and high five after every great play!

For instance, Offensive Line Coach Zach Yenser and his awesome wife Beth were nice enough to invite me (a Thanksgiving orphan) over to dinner for Thanksgiving. Beth and Zach and his folks, sister and brother-in-law provided one of the nicest Thanksgivings possible (and son Graham provided the entertainment!). And here’s the thing.

A Southern Thanksgiving in California!

They’re all southerners. And you know what they all said – THEY LOVE CALIFORNIA. They said that the Student Section for the Big Game was better than any student section in the SEC.

And they’re not alone. Heck several of the coaches live within walking distance of Memorial Stadium including famously Tony Franklin who has a loft in downtown Berkeley. They have welcomed back former players. They have our current players singing the fight song after game – when do you remember that happening? The classroom performance is on its way up. We have players who you should be proud are at Cal.

Going into the season, after what can only be described as a brutal 2013 campaign, fans were almost uniformly of the same belief; we wanted to see 3 or 4 wins, a win over a traditional rival would be nice, and we wanted to see the team be competitive. Well you know what, we got two of the three. Cal was in just about EVERY game. 3 of our losses were one possession losses, including a Hail Mary. We fought back HARD against USC. We held our own against Oregon (look at how other teams not named Arizona did). We were two awful official calls at the end of the game away from beating UCLA.

That last point can’t be glossed over. After last year (with the exception of the Northwestern game), and 2012, and even 2011 (even though we had more wins) and 2010 it had been a while since Cal games were fun. Honestly, think back to those years and just how not enjoyable the games were. Sure we won some games, but even then they never felt fun. Did ANYBODY have fun at the Holiday Bowl against Texas? Something was wrong. Well this year, almost every game was fun.

This year started off beating beating Northwestern in Chicago with about 5K Cal fans in attendance!

And as the game came to an end the players did something no one expected… they joined the crowd in singing Fight. Every fan there got goose bumps on that!

Heck I was even in Tucson for the Hail Mary loss, but there’s no denying that was a FUN game and even managed to lead a few cheers without pulling anything or breaking a hip !(hey once a micman always a micman!)

So with all that’s happened this year, I wondered, why were people so unhappy after Saturday’s loss. And looking at this post it dawned on my, by going to Northwestern and Oregon State, I got to experience two more wins than a lot of people who weren’t able to travel with team. And by going to Tucson and SC i got two more losses ;-) But they were fun. Sure, there’s the absolutely understandable revised expectations. We started out 4-1 and suddenly a bowl seemed not only reasonable, but possible. That of course didn’t take into account our season was incredibly front loaded in terms of winnable games.

But man, this is the time to show our mettle. Second guessing is totally understandable, and I do it. Coaches don’t care and I’m sure they do it themselves. And I wouldn’t for a second invalidate your feelings of disappointment. This is when we get to show the great fans we are – and we are great fans. So as we get some time to reflect on this season, instead of proverbially stomping our feet and issuing ultimatums , how about doing something else. Spending that time THANKING THE TEAM for making football fun again and reminding why we love Cal Football. #GOBEARS!!!

Don’t forget we’ve got Goff coming back as a junior. And all those receivers. And Lasco. And most of the Oline. And the defense will have another year under its belt. And so will the coaches! I am EXCITED about 2015!

As always if you like this please feel free to share. And if you don’t like it feel free to share how stupid it is!

I posted this last year, but I’d like to share again with you this year, and I’ve added in a few more photos. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with love from friends and family and maybe even a few strangers! I’ll put the closing thought up top because I mean it so much

With that I will close and wish all of you the very best this holiday season. Remember, life is precious so take a moment to smile at people, call an old friend, put aside petty differences with family members, make a commitment to make the world a better place, do something nice for a stranger and most importantly, be good to yourself and make life great!

A “traditiona'” Thanksgiving feast in Malawi, Central Africa!

I love Thanksgiving. I think it is the ultimate American holiday where for just one day of the year almost everyone in this great big crazy spread out disparate country of ours is doing the same thing. And while others may do it now, the idea of having a holiday where we simply give thanks for all that we have always strikes me as uniquely American (and something we should do more).

If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to share with you my most memorable Thanksgiving, which happened in 2001 while I was living in Malawi. I was volunteering at theMalawi Children’s Village and was teaching, primarily math and English. The event of 9/11 were still, of course fresh. I sent out the below dispatch and I’ll just let it speak for itself. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

With Biston, who always would grab my goatee

December 9, 2001

Hello and happy holidays from Africa.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. Being literally on the other side of the world I can only imagine what things are like in the U.S. and how special these holidays must be. As I think I have said recently, it’s during these times that I really miss being home with friends and family.

Many of you have asked how I spent my Thanksgiving and I would like to devote most of this dispatch to
that.

Obviously in Malawi they don’t celebrate U.S. Thanksgiving, matter-of-fact they don’t even know what it is. Having lived in Malawi for a while now, maybe I had fooled myself into thinking that I had assimilated into the culture more than I had (well as much as a 6’4, 230 pound red-headed American can). I sometimes forget just how big the cultural divide can be, which was brought home for me in trying to explain Thanksgiving to my students.

At the Christmas party with Jonathan and his mom. Smiles.

To digress for just a moment, one of my biggest frustrations for the people here is the utter lack of variety that permeates almost every aspect of their lives, their diet being a perfect metaphor for this. As I have mentioned in past emails, the staple food in Malawi is nsima, which is made from corn meal that is sifted and then boiled until it takes on a consistency of overcooked Cream of Wheat, without the flavor. You eat it communally, taking a small amount from the shared bowl, rolling it into a ball in your hand, and then dipping it in a relish – usually vegetable or fish, sometimes chicken. This is what the villagers eat for lunch and dinner, without fail, every single day. If you ask Tamanda what she had for lunch yesterday, it was nsima. Ask Mbubakar what he had for dinner last Tuesday? Nsima. Three months ago Friday for Imed? You got it, nsima.

Now, I don’t say this to sound culturally insensitive, but think about that; what if you ate the exact same thing for lunch and dinner every single day of your life? How would you feel about food? Think of the pleasure we take in food and particularly different foods from around the world. Well for the most part, folks in Malawi are never afforded that simple opportunity. A small example: a few weeks ago, I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for some of my students – none of them had ever had one – and it was like they were eating at Le Cirque.

So back to Thanksgiving: I explained how all over the country, families and friends come together to enjoy a great meal, each other’s company, and in our own different ways give thanks for what we have. I started explaining how cool I thought it was that on this one day of the year almost every American shares a common experience as almost every household has a turkey, mashed potatoes, apple or pumpkin pie and so on. And then looking at them I realized they had no idea what a turkey, mashed potatoes or pumpkin pie are.

So right there I decided that we were going to have a Thanksgiving dinner.
In case you’re wondering, making a Thanksgiving dinner in third world Africa can be a bit of a challenge (though I am sure Martha Stewart could make a beautiful centerpiece from the dead bird and hippo dropping she found by the lake). You can bet there are no turkeys, and the chickens are all pretty scrawny.

Alila carrying wood home.

So I decided we would have a slightly unconventional Thanksgiving dinner – pasta, mashed potatoes and gravy, garlic bread, green beans and a little cake for dessert.

I was able to get the pasta and canned green beans from the Catholic Bishop’s residence (it comes over from Italy … seriously). The tomatoes, potatoes, and onions and garlic for sauce were bought from the local marketplace. And finally from the store in town I bought some powdered mushroom soup (which by using much less water than directed would serve as the gravy), some sausages for the pasta sauce, and some flower, sugar and canned fruit for the cake.

Not quite traditional, but a Thanksgiving feast none-the-less

The attached pictures show the process and results; the first is cooking the pasta over an open fire – gathering the wood, lighting and stoking a fire, and then feeling like you’re in a sauna; the second is the magnificent feast; and finally everyone enjoying their first experience with pasta. We had such a fun time that evening and for me it was just so rewarding watching the expressions on their faces as they tried each of the foods and scrambled for seconds. The big
hit, as you could guess, was the cake – like everything else we had that night, none of the kids had ever had cake. Again, it’s flavors they have never tasted or knew to taste and in just a very small way, that they probably don’t even realize, just opening their eyes to other things life has to offer.

This is after the kitchen remodel!

The week before, our Form 4 secondary students returned from school having all graduated. They are
now waiting for the results of the national exams to see who will be afforded a place at the University. It gets me down a little, because once again these kids have accomplished something pretty big – graduating from the equivalent of high school – and no one really recognizes their achievement. So I decided that just the six of us would have a celebration: we went to one of the local hotels where we swam, had a great lunch and I gave each of them a watch and a solar calculator (so they don’t have to try to find and buy batteries) that I had brought with me from the States. They were so excited! Every time I would see them they would be sure to tell me what time it was…

As it came time for me to leave, all the students came by to say good-bye and to thank me for what I had done. I once again told them that the pleasure has been mine, that I feel so enriched for having met all of these special people. Life is an amazing thing, and as I think about the events of September 11th, and what is going on all over the world, I can think of spending time with people from a culture so foreign to mine, and mine to theirs, and how that didn’t matter.
Although there are so many things that are different about us, we shared a commonality, that of being human beings that care about each other and at least here
with these people, that know right from wrong.

My adopted family, the Mtaulas!

On several occasions people commented to me that they just didn’t understand why Americans, who have so much, would come to a place like Malawi, and live with so little and without all the creature comforts of home, and yet actually be happy. And I would tell them if I hadn’t have done this I would have never had the opportunity to meet all of them, experience a part of their life, make these great new friends and once again I would tell them that I took way more out of it than I could have possibly given them.

As has been my norm, I would like to end this dispatch with a poem that was given to me as a Christmas gift
by one of my students.

The Jolly Maker
Samuel Aristotle Mtaula
Jolly maker, oh!
I remembered then, for a moment,
With your golden voice,
You taught students.
With wisdom of yours
You created a nice future.
Jolly maker, hmm!
I salute you!

Jolly maker,
In time of sorrow
You set them with smiles.
When they fall in trouble,
With your presence,
They were self.
Oh! A source of happiness.

Happy maker,
There you are,
Indeed you’re a jolly maker.
Let nothing trouble you,
Since you are
Jolly maker.

With your kindness they enjoyed
Enjoyed swimming
Swimming in the swimming pool

With love,
They chatted
No need to get a witness.
With your presence
Many of t hem visited
They visited many places indeed
Ho! Jolly maker!

With that I will close and wish all of you the very best this holiday season. Remember, life is precious so take a moment to smile at people, call an old friend, put aside petty differences with family members, make a commitment to make the world a better place, do something nice for a stranger and most importantly, be good to yourself and make life great!

Let’s begin with this. Complaining about referees and umpires is a favorite pastime of fans around the world. It’s fun. It really is. And truth be told, there’s something really entertaining about it when bad calls go against a home team and the crowd gets riled up. That sort of primal booing gets us going.

We normally hear about how “complaining about officials is for losers.” And I sort of agree with it. But in the case of the Pac12, so often the officiating in a game is so egregious it warrants discussion and gets attention from national media.

This past Saturday in The Big Game between Stanford and Cal at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, we experienced one of the most hideous displays of officiating people can remember. And here’s the thing… it wasn’t one call, like in Oregon v Oklahoma. It was ongoing all game. Even rival USC conceded our game was the worst officiated game!

On the very first play of the game, Cal’s Michael Lowe was EJECTED for an alleged targeting play by umpire Rick DiBernardo. First play of the game. No one can ever remember seeing that. Let’s say for the sake of argument the call was correct. Later in the game Stanford’s Ronnie Harris takes a completely cheap shot on Cal’s Trevor Davis. Watch the video. A few things to note. The pass was well overthrown. The play is done. Davis is clearly no longer going for the ball. And yet Stanford’s Harris hits Davis in the neck and head with his forearm. A play that should lead to a penalty and ejection. And here’s the kicker, the official (two in fact) ARE RIGHT THERE as the play happened in the wide open field. No penalty.

Last year, Shane Skov, one of the dirtiest players in the conference (who was also arrested for DUI), delivered this cheap shot, where he launched himself and delivered helmet to helmet to Cal QB Jared Goff, injuring him so he had to leave the game, which prompted the national broadcasters to say he should have been ejected. But there was no flag, let alone ejection.

And of course, no discipline from David Shaw, he of the “Stanford way” fame. (apologies to my Stanford friends, I’m still peeved about that dirty hit)

But that was just setting the table so that the national media could join in.

Late in the 3rd quarter, Cal ran a play for an apparent touchdown as it was ruled on the field. It was reviewed and determined tho to not be a TD. Inexplicably the ball was placed at the 1 yard line even thought the ball was either across the endzone or inches short.

On the next play, Cal QB Luke Rubenzer ran a QB sneak and scored. TOUCHDOWN! But wait a second, once again the booth official wanted to review and, incredulously, said it was not a TD. You have to understand that in order to overrule a call on the field there has to be “clear and irrefutable video evidence.”

Here is what the reply official could see – there was no clear shot looking down the goal line

And then Jared Goff threw a perfect pass to Kenny Lawler, which was caught for a TD. But once again the booth buzzed the field and overturned the call. The stadium was in an apoplectic fit with chants of “REF! YOU! SUCK!…. REF! YOU! SUCK!” raining down.

#Cal crowd chanting… hard to make out but I think it's… "refs you're such wonderful people! refs you're such wonderful people!"

The officiating was so egregiously bad, respected former official and Vice President of Officiating for the NFL and current Fox Sports commentator Mike Pereira felt compelled to do a special commentary on just how bad it was - Bandits in the Booth Cost Cal. Take a couple of minutes to click on that link to see him rip into the officials. He literally calls them bandits!! When have you ever heard a commentator use such strong language?

You have to ask yourself if it was in fact corrupt? Because here’s the sad thing, the Pac12 was embarrassed nationally in basketball last year when it was revealed that its officials were instructed to target Sean Miller, head coach of Arizona, with a technical.

I will give the Pac12 and Larry Scott credit. Late tonight, after most deadlines, they publicly acknowledged how bad the officials were:

SAN FRANCISCO – The Pac-12 Conference acknowledged that its instant replay crew made two errors in the Stanford-California game Saturday, November 22, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott announced today.

During a California possession late in the third quarter, the instant replay crew reviewed three consecutive on-field touchdown calls by the game officials on one California offensive possession.

The NCAA Playing Rules state that to reverse an on-field ruling, the replay official must be convinced beyond all doubt by indisputable video evidence.

Through the Conference’s officiating and game management review process, it was determined that there was not enough evidence through video replay for the instant replay crew to overturn the second and third touchdown calls made by the officials on the field.

The replay crew will be held accountable for the errors through the Conference’s disciplinary process.

But I don’t want to stop there because there’s one more play which absolutely must draw into question the integrity of the officials in Saturday’s game. Here is a photo sequence of it:

Let me explain what’s happening here. In the first frame you see Cal attempting an onside kick. In the second frame you see the scrum for the ball and Stephen Anderson coming out with it. In the third frame you see him running ten yards away – but the officials (unlike every other person in the stadium) don’t seem to see him. So there is STILL no call by the officials. Finally, in the 4th frame, you see the back judge Joe Johnston and the field judge Jeffrey Yock, who are still trying to untangle the scrum – not looking downfield to Anderson – INEXPLICABLY signal Stanford ball.

Cal’s Stephen Anderson was holding the ball 15 yards from the pile and an official pointed Stanford ball. #pac12refs

Think about that for a second. What is going on? They CLEARLY cannot see a ball let alone who has possession because THE BALL IS NOT THERE. Yet with certainty they signal, Stanford ball. Here’s why that’s important. Had the ball actually been there, then the call on the field would have stood under review (I mean come on…). HOW can the officials make such a blatantly bad call? It honestly can only be one of two choices – inept or corrupt. I honestly don’t know which it is.

So what do you say? We have official acknowledgement that Pac12 officials in multiple sports are either corrupt or incompetent. Which do you think it is?

WARNING!!!! This VIDEO IS A SPOILER!!! Is best to watch AFTER you read the article!!!!

To be sure, there are a lot of storied rivalries in college athletics, but the one between Stanford and Cal is unique is so many different areas, and why it’s held in such affection between the communities of the two schools. Cal and Stanford are only separated by 40 miles. One is private the other is public. One has multiple elements on the periodic table (Californium, Berkelium and Seaborgium just to name a few) , the other, well there’s still no Stanfordium (oh no he didn’t, PERIODIC TABLE SMACK DOWN!!). But most importantly, these are two of the premier academic institutions in the world, both regularly appearing in the top 10 of world listings – Stanford almost always in the top 3 of private schools and Cal almost always the #1 public school. And one of the very cool aspects is because the Bay Area is such an amazing place, the whole region is filled with alumni of each institution who see each other every day in their work, social lives, philanthropic arenas, you name it. This is one of the key parts of winning the Big Game – bragging rights!!!

So as between good friends, we like to play jokes on each other – and the Big Game is just ripe for such fun. I don’t think I’m getting old when I say it seems like more of this happened in the “old days,” a category that my time at Cal is sadly starting to enter! So here’s the story about how in 1990 a group of enterprising Cal students tricked Stanford into cancelling its own Big Game bonfire rally – in the grand tradition of Big Game pranks!

B.U.S.T. – Burn the Ugly Stanfurd Tree – was a “secret” group at Cal whose main charter was to devise a way to foil Stanford. And to drink. Now I’ve put up the old member list here to really drive home how it was another time and place. See anything missing? Yeah, area codes. Back then the entire Bay Area was 415 so no reason to list area codes! Over shots of Jaeger up at the Big C, or pints at Raleighs, or Golden Bears at Henry’s, or pitchers at the Bear’s Lair or… wait a second I see a theme emerging here … we would throw out idea after idea about what we could do to Stanford. Finally we thought – you think we could trick them into cancelling their bonfire rally? We all smiled and we knew what our mission was!

Look at the handsome group of students! How devious could they be?

Here was the plan. We’d capitalize on some embarrassing behavior by their band (I mean, how easy would this be) and by their students that had made news to create a directive from then-President Donald Kennedy that he had no choice but to cancel the bonfire rally. OK, sounds fun, but how do we do it?

First we needed to create an official memo. Again, this was pre-Internet so there was no easy way to download letterhead or forms… We had to make it ourselves. Well turns out I had a book on the history of all college nicknames (of course I would have that book…). So I copied the Stanford logo and created some fake letterhead on an at-that-time kick-ass word processor! Here is a photo of the original scotch-taped document.

Now we had to create an official looking document that sounded like it came from the President of Stanford – just the right touch of pretentious and superciliousness – and of course we had to plant an inside joke… so here you go and I think you’ll find our inside joke (and no it’s not that I misspelled cancelled).

And now the fun would begin! How would be get the word out? Remember, this is 1990, so no emails, no internet, no Facebook… Well that group of fine looking Cal students took it upon themselves to go down to Stanford in person. Over their B.U.S.T. t-shirts on they all put button down shirts and red ties or red sweater (they felt dirty!). Then they loaded into a few cars with hundreds of copies of the memo. And down to Palo Alto they drove.

Now, while my brave comrades were doing that, I had to work. But I wanted to make sure people actually knew about what we were doing. So I called all the local media outlets and faxed over a copy of the memo to them (Oh my god, even back then I was doing PR!!). Would it work? Again, just to give you an idea of the times, here is the note sheet I was using.

At about 6PM, we all met in Senior Hall on campus, and we found out some great stuff. One, the B.U.S.T. group was able to circulate through the campus, posting the flyer all over. They presented themselves as members of the President’s Student Leadership Committee. Luckily for us, Stanford students had no idea no such group existed! But best of all, not only were they able to post the flyers, they actually got Stanford students to post them for them, in dorms, in residence halls, at fraternities!!! And people were really disappointed the rally had been cancelled!

And then we had to wait. And wait. Would they figure it out? Would they be able to mobilize in time to save the rally? OK, now you can go watch that video… as the planned 8PM start time for the rally approached, no one was there. The Stanford football team showed up, no one was there. 9PM. No one. 10PM. A few people and now they were trying to get word out that it was a HOAX! So they got word out that the rally would start at 11. And in came all the broadcast news teams for live shots of the “cancelled” rally – they had ALL bit on our fax!!!!

And you know what, every single 11PM broadcast news had a story about the cancelled rally, and how it was pulled off by Cal! And it made it into the papers the next day, even including secondary researched material by reporters!!!

And should Stanford people try and muddle or confuse or cast any doubt on the success of this, I’ll leave you with how the then-NBC affiliate KRON signed off at 11:30PM, which is the title of this post.

I hope you enjoyed this and if it does nothing else I hope it encourages our current generation of Cal students to have fun and do you what you need to do!

Cal lost to UDumb, sorry, UDub, on Saturday at Memorial, in Berkeley. I’d rather win but as we know this is going to be a learning experience for these young Bears. It’s a process so we’re going to get games like this.

So a few day-after thoughts. My feelings are sort of like after the UoA game… rough loss, but tons of positives to take away for fans.

We knew this was going to happen you guys. We knew at some point this season we were going to get a sort of clunker. So it happened. Walking up to the stadium I told some friends “You know, I think our defense is going to play really well today, I think we can blow them out…” OK the second part didn’t happen, but the first did. Really solid job by the defense.

This is all new for these players. After the last 3 years, I can forgive them for maybe just getting a little heady. And now a great lesson. You’ve to work hard and keep at it. If you want to listen to some great interviews and immediately feel good about the mindset, attitude, fortitude and approach of this team, check out Jared Goff on youtube. When asked “Does this shake your confidence, he says “NEVER!. We know not to get complacent” That is exactly what you want to hear.

Daniel Lasco says “It’s a lesson learner, we’re going to play even more tough next week! It’s just unacceptable as an offense. We got to watch the social side of it… there was a lot about scoring 50 points earlier in the week and people forget how hard it is… at the end we needed this.” I love that approach. One thing about the “social side” of it. As fans we’re supposed to have fun. I am a big believer in living in the moment and having fun with it but this is a new world so some of that stuff may just cross a line. It can seem harmless but these are basically kids and can buy into that stuff too easily.

I’ll leave the Xs and Os to other people. Loss aside, what a great day at Memorial. After a few bad years in a row it takes a bit for fans to get back into. But almost 45K filled into Memorial yesterday and they were excited. There was a palpable buzz before the game… the houses around campus had bigger pregame parties… it felt good. Unfortunately with that first bummer fumble / 100 yard TD it made it sort of tough for the crowd but here is the REALLY COOL thing about having an offense that can score. Going into the 4th Q down by 21, almost NO ONE had left. And they didn’t really start leaving until just about the very end.

HUGE HUGE HUGE THANKS to Beth Graham Yenser! I tell you I think Zach Yenser outkicked his coverage with her! She is awesome. Also, I really want you guys to know how much the Cal family is invested in this. Kate Golding Dykes is so cool, and she’s one of us. I know it’s easy to say when her husband is the coach, but she has really become a part of the Cal community.

Kate Golding Dykes putting up with an aging loud alumnus

You know what I love about Cal football (and life) is I can be having a bad week and then I go to a game and see all my old friends and meet new friends like Christian Eric Dean.

And be inside beautiful Memorial Stadium and see the Campanile at Sunset and it reminds me how lucky we’ve got it.

So now the key thing. BEAT THE BRUINS!!!!! Every time you see someone from the satellite campus in LA, the FIFTH of the UC campuses, make sure to tell them

Oh do I get grief for that. And for my obsession with the fist bump – the exploding fist bump! So I thought I would take a moment to share with you the genesis of that.

Yep, it’s 9/11, so time for my annual homage to my great friend Mark Bingham, who was taken from us entirely too early 12 years ago. It would almost be impossible for any of you reading this, who likely know me, to not know of Mark Bingham. Mark was one of the heroes of United 93 who in a selfless last act of courage helped bring down the aircraft which experts believe had the US Capitol Building as its target.

Mark was one of my best friends. Now the great thing about Mark is you could probably ask 20 people and each of them would also say “Mark was…

I love Thanksgiving. I think it is the ultimate American holiday where for just one day of the year almost everyone in this great big crazy spread out disparate country of ours is doing the same thing. And while others may do it now, the idea of having a holiday where we simply give thanks for all that we have always strikes me as uniquely American (and something we should do more).

If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to share with you my most memorable Thanksgiving, which happened in 2001 while I was living in Malawi. I was volunteering at the Malawi Children’s Village and was teaching, primarily math and English. The event of 9/11 were still, of course fresh. I sent out the below dispatch and I’ll just let it speak for itself. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

December 9, 2001

Hello and happy holidays from Africa.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. Being literally on the other side of the world I can only imagine what things are like in the U.S. and how special these holidays must be. As I think I have said recently, it’s during these times that I really miss being home with friends and family.

Many of you have asked how I spent my Thanksgiving and I would like to devote most of this dispatch to
that.

Obviously in Malawi they don’t celebrate U.S. Thanksgiving, matter-of-fact they don’t even know what it is. Having lived in Malawi for a while now, maybe I had fooled myself into thinking that I had assimilated into the culture more than I had (well as much as a 6’4, 230 pound red-headed American can). I sometimes forget just how big the cultural divide can be, which was brought home for me in trying to explain Thanksgiving to my students.

To digress for just a moment, one of my biggest frustrations for the people here is the utter lack of variety that permeates almost every aspect of their lives, their diet being a perfect metaphor for this. As I have mentioned in past emails, the staple food in Malawi is nsima, which is made from corn meal that is sifted and then boiled until it takes on a consistency of overcooked Cream of Wheat, without the flavor. You eat it communally, taking a small amount from the shared bowl, rolling it into a ball in your hand, and then dipping it in a relish – usually vegetable or fish, sometimes chicken. This is what the villagers eat for lunch and dinner, without fail, every single day. If you ask Tamanda what she had for lunch yesterday, it was nsima. Ask Mbubakar what he had for dinner last Tuesday? Nsima. Three months ago Friday for Imed? You got it, nsima.

Now, I don’t say this to sound culturally insensitive, but think about that; what if you ate the exact same thing for lunch and dinner every single day of your life? How would you feel about food? Think of the pleasure we take in food and particularly different foods from around the world. Well for the most part, folks in Malawi are never afforded that simple opportunity. A small example: a few weeks ago, I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for some of my students – none of them had ever had one – and it was like they were eating at Le Cirque.

So back to Thanksgiving: I explained how all over the country, families and friends come together to enjoy a great meal, each other’s company, and in our own different ways give thanks for what we have. I started explaining how cool I thought it was that on this one day of the year almost every American shares a common experience as almost every household has a turkey, mashed potatoes, apple or pumpkin pie and so on. And then looking at them I realized they had no idea what a turkey, mashed potatoes or pumpkin pie are.

So right there I decided that we were going to have a Thanksgiving dinner.
In case you’re wondering, making a Thanksgiving dinner in third world Africa can be a bit of a challenge (though I am sure Martha Stewart could make a beautiful centerpiece from the dead bird and hippo dropping she found by the lake). You can bet there are no turkeys, and the chickens are all pretty scrawny.

So I decided we would have a slightly unconventional Thanksgiving dinner – pasta, mashed potatoes and gravy, garlic bread, green beans and a little cake for dessert.

I was able to get the pasta and canned green beans from the Catholic Bishop’s residence (it comes over from Italy … seriously). The tomatoes, potatoes, and onions and garlic for sauce were bought from the local marketplace. And finally from the store in town I bought some powdered mushroom soup (which by using much less water than directed would serve as the gravy), some sausages for the pasta sauce, and some flower, sugar and canned fruit for the cake.

The attached pictures show the process and results; the first is cooking the pasta over an open fire – gathering the wood, lighting and stoking a fire, and then feeling like you’re in a sauna; the second is the magnificent feast; and finally everyone enjoying their first experience with pasta. We had such a fun time that evening and for me it was just so rewarding watching the expressions on their faces as they tried each of the foods and scrambled for seconds. The big
hit, as you could guess, was the cake – like everything else we had that night, none of the kids had ever had cake. Again, it’s flavors they have never tasted or knew to taste and in just a very small way, that they probably don’t even realize, just opening their eyes to other things life has to offer.

The week before, our Form 4 secondary students returned from school having all graduated. They are
now waiting for the results of the national exams to see who will be afforded a place at the University. It gets me down a little, because once again these kids have accomplished something pretty big – graduating from the equivalent of high school – and no one really recognizes their achievement. So I decided that just the six of us would have a celebration: we went to one of the local hotels where we swam, had a great lunch and I gave each of them a watch and a solar calculator (so they don’t have to try to find and buy batteries) that I had brought with me from the States. They were so excited! Every time I would see them they would be sure to tell me what time it was…

As it came time for me to leave, all the students came by to say good-bye and to thank me for what I had done. I once again told them that the pleasure has been mine, that I feel so enriched for having met all of these special people. Life is an amazing thing, and as I think about the events of September 11th, and what is going on all over the world, I can think of spending time with people from a culture so foreign to mine, and mine to theirs, and how that didn’t matter.
Although there are so many things that are different about us, we shared a commonality, that of being human beings that care about each other and at least here
with these people, that know right from wrong.

On several occasions people commented to me that they just didn’t understand why Americans, who have so much, would come to a place like Malawi, and live with so little and without all the creature comforts of home, and yet actually be happy. And I would tell them if I hadn’t have done this I would have never had the opportunity to meet all of them, experience a part of their life, make these great new friends and once again I would tell them that I took way more out of it than I could have possibly given them.

As has been my norm, I would like to end this dispatch with a poem that was given to me as a Christmas gift
by one of my students.

The Jolly Maker
Samuel Aristotle Mtaula
Jolly maker, oh!
I remembered then, for a moment,
With your golden voice,
You taught students.
With wisdom of yours
You created a nice future.
Jolly maker, hmm!
I salute you!

Jolly maker,
In time of sorrow
You set them with smiles.
When they fall in trouble,
With your presence,
They were self.
Oh! A source of happiness.

Happy maker,
There you are,
Indeed you’re a jolly maker.
Let nothing trouble you,
Since you are
Jolly maker.

With your kindness they enjoyed
Enjoyed swimming
Swimming in the swimming pool

With love,
They chatted
No need to get a witness.
With your presence
Many of t hem visited
They visited many places indeed
Ho! Jolly maker!

With that I will close and wish all of you the very best this holiday season. Remember, life is precious so take a moment to smile at people, call an old friend, put aside petty differences with family members, make a commitment to make the world a better place, do something nice for a stranger and most importantly, be good to yourself and make life great!